Emotional Brand Attachment, Brand Tribalism, and Co-creation in Luxury Hotels: Insights from Emerging Economies

Abstract

Introduction In the exquisite tapestry of hospitality, luxury hotels have always concentrated on the comfort of the customer. However, the shifting shades of time unfolded the art of managing customers' emotions to strengthen hotel-customer relationships. Methods This trend has resulted in luxury hotels focusing on customers' value co-creation behaviour by weaving the emotions of the customers into a collaborative service symphony and ensuring that customers self-identify themselves with the luxury hotel and its other customers as a tribe. There are scant studies on the contribution of customer value co-creation behaviour towards luxury hotels; therefore, this study aimed to examine the emotional psychology of customers and their behaviour by evaluating a model curated between emotional brand attachment, brand tribalism, and customer value co-creation behaviour. Data for the study were collected by facilitating structured questionnaires to 399 Indian customers of luxury hotels. The proposed model was empirically examined by the structural equation modelling technique. Results The results confirmed that emotional brand attachment and brand tribalism positively affect customer value co-creation behaviour. Emotional brand attachment also positively affects brand tribalism in customers of luxury hotels. The findings offer a fresh perspective for marketers, researchers, and academicians by validating that emotions play a vital role in promoting brand tribalism and inducing value co-creation behaviour in the customers of luxury hotels. Additionally, the study validates that brand tribalism affects value co-creation behaviour. Conclusion This study is unique as it provides a holistic view of factors that are crucial for luxury hotels in the competitive landscape to promote a collaborative spirit of the customers, progress on relational management, and understand the emotional psychology of the customer.